Speaking on a recent episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, produced in partnership with LegalVision, he discussed how leaders of in-house legal teams, whether big or small, can deploy low-tech transformation projects and how legal departments can be impactful while doing so.

As the profession increasingly embraces tech and efficiency, in-house teams should be looking inward before implementing new technology – although Giuffre emphasised that in this space, nothing is “black and white”.

“There are no rules. And absolutely the questions that teams should be asking will vary depending on the business that they’re operating in, the size of their legal teams, and also the available resources that they have at their disposal. I would say just take a step back when we’re looking at what are the most effective in-house legal teams doing in this space, you know, what are the sort of characteristics of really effective, impactful in-house teams?” he said.

“The most impactful teams have a number of qualities. Number one is that they have a strong alignment with the business’s priorities and understanding and alignment. Number two, they’re constantly questioning, OK, this is the work that’s currently on our plate. And are we the in-house lawyers, directing our attention to the most impactful, most value-adding work that aligns with those businesses’ priorities. Number three, they’re questioning, of the matters that are currently on their plate, what is it that we need to retain? Because the work might be particularly high risk or business-critical or strategic, or it requires a lot of that internal business knowledge.

“And then there’s a third category, which is, what is the work that we can then refer to a strategic legal partner? And then finally, it’s those things around this culture of constant improvement and this real investment in knowledge management around precedence and playbooks and cheat sheets and training. Those are the things that really impactful in-house teams are currently doing.”

As such, there are a number of practical steps law departments can and should currently be taking, including improving their reporting and prioritising various workflows.

“The first place to start is data and reporting, making sure that you have a really clear picture of the work that is on your plate and on your team’s plate. The second then is to prioritise. So, similar to what I was saying before working out. OK, well, what work streams need to be done by your team? Or what could potentially be self-serviced by the business or referred out to a strategic legal partner, but also of the work that is currently on your plate, what are the work streams that are clearly perfect for a transformation project?” Giuffre said.

VIEW ALL

“And the features typically are work streams that are high volume, very repeatable, where similar issues are coming up. Those are the areas where it’s kind of the low-hanging fruit, the quick wins, where really simple, low-tech, low-cost transformation projects could be really impactful.”

In line with this, LegalVision has worked with a multitude of clients on tech transformation projects – and Giuffre added that any pushback or resistance is rare.

“There is always a desire to improve the way things are done. It really does come down to time and budget. And so, a lot of legal teams, as we know, are very busy and aren’t able to find the space to be able to dedicate time and resources to these transformation projects. And I feel like one of the benefits of low-tech transformation projects is that they, firstly, are generally more cost-effective than deploying technology. It is something that is often within the legal team’s control that they can incorporate into their day-to-day.

“And in-house legal teams that have really embedded transformation and optimisation as part of their BAU are the ones that tend to really invest heavily in these low-tech transformation efforts. Whenever they draft a new precedent, they’re storing it in their knowledge bank. Whenever they’re drafting an interesting new clause, they’re categorising it, tagging it and putting it in their clause bank. Whenever they’ve drafted an interesting piece of advice or a novel piece of advice, they’re templating it straight away and they’re storing it away in their advice bank,” he said.

“And there’s this constant process of adding to their knowledge resources, which has the benefit of institutionalising that knowledge and allowing it to be utilised by new people that come into the business, junior lawyers, even senior lawyers, so that they don’t have to continue to reinvent the wheel time and time again.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Emmanuel Giuffre, click below: